Are you Really Social? Put your Smartphone Down. Using Nudge to Reduce the Frequency of use of Smartphones in Pub and Restaurants

Abstract

To escape uninteresting conversations during an aperitif or a lunch break, in pubs and restaurants, people prefer to communicate with their smartphone rather than with those sitting next to them. This online contact led to greater isolation in real life and impaired relationships. The nudging technique called salience was used to increase face-to-face relationships and obtain a reduction in the frequency of use of the smartphone in the moments of aggregation, to gently push people to undertake specific behavior such as distancing themselves from their mobile device in moments intended for sharing. Research has shown that, by making the options more visible, in order to attract people's attention, it is possible to direct them to more appropriate choices. In fact, the data obtained showed that the experimental group had a reduction in frequency of smartphone usage in moments of aggregation, which suggests the effectiveness of intervention.